I stormed out of the Great Hall with tears in my eyes, hearing him call my name, but refusing to turn back. I never wanted to look at him again. I hated him.

Scorpius Malfoy had lied to me and used me. He had had his own bit of fun with me, with all the snogging and the groping, and our dates. He had enjoyed the sex, probably thinking of me as one of his trophies— a triumph, while I, in a state of emotion, fell in love with him, only to realise that he had never even liked me in the first place. This turned out to be his way of having fun.

What hadn’t I done for him? I fought with my friends when they tried to keep me away from him; and then I fought with my own brother about it too. Albus had warned me right in the beginning that something was wrong; that Scorpius Malfoy was most probably lying to me about being attracted to me, but I didn’t believe him. I vouched for Scorpius— the person I loved, and the person, who, I found out today, had pretended to be attracted to me and then lied about loving me, just so he could get me into bed with him. And it was all part of a dare that had been assigned to him by his friends.

/////

Scorpius tried to approach me many times in the weeks following our break-up, but I did my best to ignore him. There were many times that he came face-to-face just so he could apologise, and before he could start explaining about how he had actual fallen for me despite his initial intentions, I’d walk away. It only pained me more to know that everything that his mates had said was true. Somewhere, I was hoping that it was a just a rumour; or that it was a really long and really bad dream, but it was not. Scorpius was the liar I thought he was.

I didn’t care that he had tears in his eyes on one or two of those occasions. I had never seen him cry, and seeing him like that right now didn’t make me happy, but I wasn’t all that affected either. Somewhere, I realised, I hoped he was telling the truth while he was apologising, because I wanted him to feel the pain that I had experienced. He would never truly be sorry until he personally experienced the terrible pain.

/////

“I need to talk to you,” Rose said to me one day, as she joined me while I was sitting alone by the lake. “About Scorpius,” she added. They were good friends.

“What is it now?” I asked her bluntly. “Is it that he was always in love with me, but he took the dare just so he could be with me without opposition?”

“I spoke to him,” she said. “What he did was wrong, Lily, but he does actually love you now. Please give him another chance.”

“And he couldn’t say this to me directly?”

“You wouldn’t listen to him.”

“Well, what does he expect?”

She licked her lips and hesitated. “H-He’s written you a letter.”

“Oh?”

She opened her bag, dug out a small slip of parchment and handed it to me. “Please read this.”

“Okay,” I said, taking it. When she continued to stare at me, I looked at her questioningly. “You want me to read it now…?”

She nodded and glanced sideways. I traced her glance to see Scorpius standing a few metres away, his hands in his pockets, and his grey eyes on me. I sighed again. He’d never give up anyway, so it was best I read the letter right then.

I unfolded the parchment to two simple lines from him.

It may have all been a lie, but it’s the truth now. Please forgive me for hurting you. I really want you back.

Love, Me.

I took a deep breath and turned to him. I could see his anxious face and his pleading eyes, and I realised at once that he was genuine this time. But I wasn’t going to make him happy so soon. I was ready to forgive him and take him back some day, but this was not that day.

Gritting my teeth, I took a deep breath and ripped the parchment into pieces. I looked at him one last time and could see his eyes fill up as he walked away. Then for the first time in ages, I was pleased. The reins were mine this time. I could do this my way, and he’d never be able to hurt me again.

02-17-2013, 12:53 AM

ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor

Title: LovesongPairing: Lily Luna/NevilleCandy Heart used: Love songRating/warnings: 3rd-5th years: Mild Profanity, Cross-GenAuthor's note: If this is awful, my apologies. I had to curb several subplots to keep this at a manageable size, though. D:

Neville stared at the door knocker and fought the urge to turn around and leave. He didn’t want to be there at all, but he supposed he was lucky at all to have kept as many friends he did in the divorce. When Hannah had demanded that he choose between her and Hogwarts, he didn’t realise it would mean dividing loyalties amongst their acquaintances, as well. Instead of ‘their friends’, everyone became either ‘his friends’ or ‘her friends’, with few who walked the line between both.

But he knew pity when he saw it. All summer long, there was a constant parade of dinner invitations from warm, happy couples and their blissfully unbroken homes. They meant well, probably trying to keep him from holing up at Hogwarts in his misery, but constantly reminding him of what he no longer had and probably wouldn’t again fell a bit short in the comfort department.

With a heavy sigh, Neville clanged the door knocker to announce his presence. Almost immediately, a grinning (fully clothed, of course) house elf, Drinsy, ushered him inside, but when Neville entered the house, the first thing he noticed was the piano. Beautiful, rich, melancholy music, and the voice of an angel floated alongside it and captivated him. It took nearly five minutes for Drinsy to get him to proceed to the sitting room.

There she was — the source of that wonderful sound. Red hair glistening in the lamplight and the glint of shining piano keys was Lily Potter, who he hadn’t seen much of in the past few years. This beautiful creature and her music, though, were hardly recognisable from the spindly girl who used to fly a toy broomstick around his knees.

He never knew she played, so he decided to sit on the sofa and listen. It was only then, though, that he got a chance to hear to the song she was singing. A sad love song. Bloody hell. Every line felt like it was reaching into his chest and ripping something out by the roots, yet he couldn’t stop listening to it. Lily’s voice was beautiful, and her hands conjured such wonderful sounds from that enigmatic spread of black and white.

As the song finished, Neville nearly breathed a sigh of relief. It was lovely, but painfully so. However, he was saved from further unpleasant reminders when Lily turned around. She saw him immediately, and her face lit up. “Neville! Why didn’t you tell me you were here?”

Lily slipped off the piano bench and nearly ran over to embrace him. He felt his heart lurch as she kissed his cheek and gave him a dazzling smile. While it was a reminder that no one ever smiled like that for him anymore, it also gave him the uncomfortable urge to kiss her back. When Harry walked in with a grin on his face, Neville was more relieved than he cared to admit.

Dinner passed in quiet conversation, mostly with Harry and Ginny probing Neville about everything but Hannah. Ginny even asked about his Mimbulus Mimbletonia. Lily, however, remained quiet. When Drinsy cleared away the last vestiges of the meal, Lily looked as relieved as Neville felt.

Hoping for some time away from their well-intentioned cloying, Neville said, “An excellent meal, which I believe I’ll cap off with some fresh air. If you’ll excuse me.” He gave a pinched smile before he nearly sprinted out the back door. The Potters’ back garden was blissfully large. A perfect escape.

He found himself sitting on an old swing, hanging from an ancient Scottish maple tree. Thinking of Lily sitting on that very swing as a child did nothing to quell the discomfiting thoughts that had started when he arrived and never quite stopped. And quell them, he must. Harry’s little girl wasn’t so little anymore, and Neville felt like the world’s biggest git for noticing so acutely.

Neville nearly fell off the swing when his thoughts materialised from the darkness. “Neville?”

Bollocks. He contemplated pretending like he didn’t hear her, but the last thing he wanted to do was upset her. After all, it wasn’t her fault he was a bastard and apparently not good enough for anyone. “Hey, Lils.”

Lily sighed and leant against the tree. “I’m sorry about them. They’re treating you like you’ll explode at the first mention of Hannah.”

The mention of Hannah made Neville wince, but not as much as it had the last time someone had dared speak her name in his presence. “It’s rough, but I’m not made of glass. I survived a war; I think I can deal with a divorce.”

Nodding pertly, Lily said, “My thoughts exactly. You deserve to be happy, and if Hannah doesn’t make you happy anymore, then it’s time to put that behind you and look ahead.”

A smile tugged unbidden on Neville’s lips. “Yes, ma’am.”

With a quick peck on his cheek, Lily turned to head back into the house. “If you ever need to talk — or anything, really — drop me an owl and I’ll be there.”

Those words rang in Neville ears long after she left. What he was pretty sure he wanted from her was something he would never ask, but he could tell that it would be a long time before he stopped thinking about it. About her.

When he did, he always dreamed about her. He’d hardly known her in school - Harry’s friend, he’d always thought, and never looked around to see her. Now, though, her image was burned into the backs of his eyes whenever he shut them; he could not escape from her eyes (beautiful and brown and seemed to go on forever).

But Oliver hardly slept anymore. Tonight, he was convincing himself, with shaking hands, that a third firewhisky would get the job done and he’d be able to forget the haunting memories of Colin Creevey’s body, limp over his own. He did not understand why it was so hard for him to move on when he had hardly faced the brunt of the battle. He did not understand much of anything anymore.

There was the tinkling of a bell as someone entered the bar, but Oliver hardly looked up until they slid into the seat next to him and ordered a vodka tonic in a shaking, familiar voice. It was, quite literally, the girl of his dreams.

“Hermione?” he asked, hoping that his voice didn’t sound slurred (her name too complicated for that, a waterfall of vowels and syllables that most people struggled to pronounce on their own.)

She turned towards him. “Wood? Oliver Wood?”

Oliver nodded and stirred his drink for a second before turning to Hermione again. Her eyes were just as his dreams had pictured them. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said.

She shrugged and visibly bit her lip. “I couldn’t sleep.”

(Could anyone, anymore?)

It was only when he began to look more closely at Hermione that Oliver noticed the horribly dark circles under her eyes, the way she tapped her fingers on the bar counter in a way that was almost maniacal, and the fact that she sat hunched into herself, closed off to the rest of the world. None of these things seemed like the bossy, almost arrogant girl he’d seen at Hogwarts. With a swallow of his drink, he realised that Hermione had been damaged far worse than he had been. (That seemed impossible to even contemplate: Hermione Granger was the girl who had helped defeat Voldemort. Oliver did not know why she suddenly seemed so fragile, so irreparable.)

“It’s hard to sleep, now,” Hermione said suddenly, facing Oliver. “Because when you sleep, you dream. And after the battle, I don’t want to do that anymore.”

“So you come here,” Oliver murmured, wondering how drunk he was and how much he was going to regret this in the morning.

“Not always,” she said. “But Ron can never stay awake with me.” (With a painful snap of memory, Oliver remembered what had happened between Hermione and Ron.) “He doesn’t understand why I can’t sleep. And I can never be alone at night.”

“I would stay awake with you,” Oliver said, and, even drunk and sleepless, immediately regretted it. Hermione looked shocked but almost pleased (the first time he had seen her that way since before the battle.)

“Oliver, you’re drunk,” Hermione told him (and, he thought, what else did he expect her to say?).

“It’s true,” he added - what the hell was he doing? “I haven’t slept right for months.”

And now he noticed how her eyes looked dark and sad and he could not bear to look into them for any longer. “Oh, but Oliver,” she told him - and now she was whispering in a way that almost broke his heart, “I don’t need someone to stay awake with me. I need someone to help me fall asleep.”

Hermione’s hand ghosted along his shoulder and she set her drink down with a noise that jolted Oliver upright. “I have to go,” she said. “Good night, Oliver.”

“Sweet dreams,” he whispered, but he was not entirely sure that Hermione had heard him.

Teddy Lupin is all smiles tonight. After all, it is his wedding, and he is marrying the love of his life. Victoire Lupin has an incredible ring to it, Teddy thinks. It really does.

He looks over the reception at their family, which has always been essentially one and the same. So many happy faces, come to see him and Victoire off on their new life together. Well, mostly happy faces. His joy falters a bit when he sees Lily Potter sitting in a shadowy corner, staring at an untouched plate of steamed vegetables.

That just won’t do, Teddy thinks. He is the host, after all, so it wouldn’t be right to leave her by herself. Confident he can make her smile like he has done since she was a baby, Teddy approaches her with a mock-serious expression. “Excuse me, young lady.”

Lily looks up warily from her plate, and her jaw clenches when she sees who is there. “Hi, Teddy.”

Her voice is timid and sad, and for a moment, Teddy falters, but he doesn’t recall any reason why she should be upset with him, so he soldiers on. “According to the rules set forth by the ruling council of these proceeding, there are to be no long faces on the premises. Therefore, you are required to report to the dance floor immediately, with a smile on any beautiful faces of which you may be in possession.”

With a soft chuckle, Lily says with a salute, “Yes, sir!” before offering her hand. Teddy takes it and leads her to the swirling mass of fabric for a twirl or two, and perhaps a heart-to-heart chat with his little Ladybug.

“So, am I going mad, or do you have a storm cloud over your head?” Teddy asks, seeing no point in dawdling.

Lily averts her eyes. “I, um, just don’t feel very well. Sorry to be such a raincloud on your special day, but I’ve felt this way all day.”

Teddy smiles sadly. “Well, Ladybug, that is simply too bad. You’re going to have a good time whether you like it or not.” He bends at the waist and lowers Lily into a garishly low dip before adding, “You might even thank me for it.” With a flourish, he sweeps her back on her feet and tucks their bodies back together to continue the waltz that is currently playing.

A giggle escapes Lily before she bites her lip. “You are so ridiculous.”

“I know,” Teddy admits with a shrug. “But that’s why you love me.”

As suddenly as it was there, any levity left on Lily’s face immediately drains, causing Teddy to stop in his tracks. “Come on, let’s get some air.” He takes her elbow and begins to direct her toward the door to the patio, but she doesn’t follow. Turning back, he repeats, “Outside?”

She nods sullenly and follows Teddy to the garden, where only a few meandering guests who have drunk a bit too much are haphazardly groping one another. Ignoring them, he puts a finger under Lily’s chin and makes her look him in the eye. “Now, are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or do I have to break out the Veritaserum?”

“I can’t,” Lily says, her voice cracking. “I can’t do that.”

Stroking her cheek with his thumb, Teddy says, “’Course, you can. Whatever you say doesn’t leave the boundaries of these bushes, I promise on my word as an Auror and your godfather. Now, will you please tell me why you look like you’re going to cry at any second?”

Teddy can see her breaking down, and he pulls her tightly to his chest. “Shh,” he croons, stroking her hair like she has only scraped an elbow. “Whoever it is, I’ll knock him on is arse so hard he’ll see stars.”

“No!” Lily squeaks. “You don’t understand, how could you?” She pushes away from him and points at him. “If you’re going to knock someone out, start with this guy, because he’s the only one who's ever broken my heart!”

Staring at Lily in shock, Teddy stammers, “I — I don’t understand.”

Lily rolls her eyes. “Of course, you don’t! We wouldn’t be here if you did.” Grabbing Teddy by the back of the neck, she yanks his head down and kisses him hard before shoving him away. “I waited for you.”

“What?” Teddy mouths as his jaw hangs slack.

“I’ve been in love with you since I was twelve, but you never looked at me twice! I never expected you to, either. I just waited to grow up for you to finally see me the way I saw you, but you never did. You just married her and left me alone!” Lily’s face crumples. “I love you, Teddy Lupin, but I hate you!”

Lily wheels around and storms towards the gates, leaving Teddy stupefied and completely thrown for a loop. As she Apparates away from the reception, away from him, he has a feeling that something else has been lost and he might never get it back. As he looks up at the glittering night sky, a tear slips down his cheek. He isn’t sure he can smile again tonight.

02-17-2013, 06:51 AM

Maple_and_PheonixFeather

Eeeeep, you guys, these are so beautiful! Seriously, I love you all so much!

The Reins This was just so unexpected and so lovely. I was so glad someone chose this prompt, and I love how it was done. It was just so exciting and I love it for being so different from anything I would have expected.

Lovesong Oh my gosh, I love what you did with this! I was so not expecting anything like this. It's just so perfect for who I am, and I love that you made her so musical and eep! This is exactly what musical!Lily would do - touch people!

Falling Asleep How dare you not let them fall asleep together!! Ahaha, no seriously though, this felt so accurate to a post-war world, and I love htat drunk!Oliver wasn't so much creepy as a sweet drunk.

First Love: The author said it best. Sad drabble is sad! But sad drabble is iso beautiful and made me smile so much.

Thank you all so much! These were all so beautiful and feel so gahhhhh. *hugs and squishes* I love you all :)